2009-07-12

Mixed Bag on the Left

I saw an article on the left-wing BBC about Obama's hopes for Africa. I wasn't going to read it because I was pretty sure it was more of the same nonsense that ultimately ensures that the Africans remain backward, innocent whites remain hated, and so conflict and poverty is perpetuated by the very same people who pretend to want to end these things.

But I decided to read it anyway.

Sure enough, Obama and the BBC managed to go back to the 17th friggin century to say something nasty about whites. Not mentioned was the more recent (only one friggin century old) ending of the slave trade by the Royal Navy. Nor the shitload of whites who died ending slavery in North America. Nor the huge amounts of direct and indirect foreign aid to Africa being completely squandered by Africans.

On the other hand, he did come out with a very clear statement:

"Development depends upon good governance," Mr Obama told legislators. "That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long.

"And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans."

Not sure I can ask for much more than that. Well, I can ask for an ending of the racism against whites - the same racism that causes hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to be massacred by their neighbours - but let's not try Mission Impossible.

And there's much more to be lauded in there as well.

And quite frankly if the likes of Geldoff could get behind Obama's message, it would go a long way towards ending singer scams too.

"We should stop blaming colonialism for our under-development. We really need to address issues of governance, because I believe it is the mediocrity with which Africa has been governed that is responsible for our backwardness today."

To quote someone else - Holy personal responsibility, Batman!

But then we have this sick quote:

"Ghana's achievements were less dramatic than the liberation struggles of the 20th Century but would ultimately be more significant."

I was wondering how Ghana's economic reforms could be more important than the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

Then I realised what he was calling a "liberation struggle". ie some black dictator replacing good governance and human rights with hell on earth.